S100-EPISPOT: A New Tool to Detect Viable Circulating Melanoma Cells

Wiltfang

et al. 2019

Cancers

Despite remarkable progress in melanoma therapy, the exceptional heterogeneity of the disease has prevented the development of reliable companion biomarkers for the prediction or monitoring of therapy responses. Here, we show that difficulties in detecting blood-based markers, like circulating tumor cells (CTC), might arise from the translation of the mutational heterogeneity of melanoma cells towards their surface marker expression. We provide a unique method, which enables the molecular characterization of clinically relevant CTC subsets, as well as circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), from a single blood sample. The study demonstrates the benefit of a combined analysis of ctDNA and CTC counts in melanoma patients, revealing that CTC subsets and ctDNA provide synergistic real-time information on the mutational status, RNA and protein expression of melanoma cells in individual patients, in relation to clinical outcome.

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Intra-Patient Heterogeneity of Circulating Tumor Cells and Circulating Tumor DNA in Blood of Melanoma Patients

Wiltfang

et al. 2019

Cancers

“…A CellSearch ® Circulating Melanoma Cell Kit is also available. Despite the limited number of studies on this kit, they all reported similar results: detection of two or more CMCs in approximately 25% of patients with metastatic melanoma, and significant association of CMC detection with overall survival (OS) [9,32,33].…”

Section: Technological Challengesmentioning

confidence: 81%

Clinical Relevance of Liquid Biopsy in Melanoma and Merkel Cell Carcinoma

Boyer¹,

Cayrefourcq²,

Dereure

et al. 2020

Cancers

Self Cite

Melanoma and Merkel cell carcinoma are two aggressive skin malignancies with high disease-related mortality and increasing incidence rates. Currently, invasive tumor tissue biopsy is the gold standard for their diagnosis, and no reliable easily accessible biomarker is available to monitor patients with melanoma or Merkel cell carcinoma during the disease course. In these last years, liquid biopsy has emerged as a candidate approach to overcome this limit and to identify biomarkers for early cancer diagnosis, prognosis, therapeutic response prediction, and patient follow-up. Liquid biopsy is a blood-based non-invasive procedure that allows the sequential analysis of circulating tumor cells, circulating cell-free and tumor DNA, and extracellular vesicles. These innovative biosources show similar features as the primary tumor from where they originated and represent an alternative to invasive solid tumor biopsy. In this review, the biology and technical challenges linked to the detection and analysis of the different circulating candidate biomarkers for melanoma and Merkel cell carcinoma are discussed as well as their clinical relevance.

“…Recently, the new EPISPOT assay (S100-EPISPOT assay) has been designed for melanoma CTCs; this assay discriminates the cancer cells in the blood based on their expression and secretion of the protein S-100, typical of melanoma. The study has shown that the sensitivity of S100-EPISPOT was significantly higher than that of CellSearch [102].…”

Section: Ctcsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Precision Medicine and Melanoma: Multi-Omics Approaches to Monitoring the Immunotherapy Response

Valenti¹,

Falcone

Ungania

et al. 2021

IJMS

The treatment and management of patients with metastatic melanoma have evolved considerably in the “era” of personalized medicine. Melanoma was one of the first solid tumors to benefit from immunotherapy; life expectancy for patients in advanced stage of disease has improved. However, many progresses have yet to be made considering the (still) high number of patients who do not respond to therapies or who suffer adverse events. In this scenario, precision medicine appears fundamental to direct the most appropriate treatment to the single patient and to guide towards treatment decisions. The recent multi-omics analyses (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, radiomics, etc.) and the technological evolution of data interpretation have allowed to identify and understand several processes underlying the biology of cancer; therefore, improving the tumor clinical management. Specifically, these approaches have identified new pharmacological targets and potential biomarkers used to predict the response or adverse events to treatments. In this review, we will analyze and describe the most important omics approaches, by evaluating the methodological aspects and progress in melanoma precision medicine.